A handful of federal conservation applications have everlasting steady funding mechanisms that enable them to persistently, albeit quietly, fulfill their targets. These applications are successfully on auto-pilot. Amongst them are Federal Duck Stamps and associated waterfowl conservation applications.
As background, a Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp prices $25 and revenue from gross sales goes into the Migratory Chicken Conservation Fund (“MBCF”). There are a number of funding sources for the MBCF, however two predominate: (1) Duck Stamp gross sales, and (2) import duties on arms and ammunition.
Acquisitions made with the MBCF should be accredited by the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (“MBCC”). Membership of the MBCC is ready by regulation: the Secretary of the Inside, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Administrator of the EPA, two Senators, and two Representatives. By custom, the congressional members are equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Thus, Duck Stamp cash goes into the MBCF and the MBCC decides how to spend these funds. To this point, the MBCF has both bought or obtained conservation easements for about 6 million acres of habitat. These acquisitions embody substantial parts of most of the Top 25 NWRs for birding.
In 1989, the MBCC was additional tasked with approving tasks beneath the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), which offers federal funds for partnerships to guard and handle wetlands and different habitats for migratory birds and to implement the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
The MBCC meets twice a 12 months and right here’s what it did this 12 months:
- In April 2023, the MBCC introduced $146 million in funding to supply FWS and companions the flexibility to preserve or restore 242,000 acres of wetland and related upland habitats.
- In September 2023, the MBCC introduced $50.6 million in funding to assist preserve greater than 106,600 acres of habitat.
Many funded projects are grants to organizations (e.g., Ducks Unlimited) or native governments for land acquisition, conservation, or restoration. Most grant cash is matched by different events so the impression of the grants is multiplied. Though the dimensions of any particular person venture could also be modest, the MBCC dutifully approves tasks twice a 12 months, every 12 months, and it provides up over time.
Duck Stamp funds additionally enable FWS to develop the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System. In 2023, it did so with the next allocations:
- Cat Island NWR (Louisiana): $1,466,000 to amass 548 acres.
- Clarks River NWR (Kentucky): $6,621,000 to amass 2,482 acres.
- Green River NWR (Kentucky): $11,372,000 to amass 1,335 acres.
- Silvio O. Conte NWR (New Hampshire): $1,066,450 to amass 797 acres.
- Willapa NWR (Washington): $1,255,248 to amass 239 acres.
- Grays Lake NWR (Idaho): $6,240,000 to amass 2,496 acres.
- Cape Romain NWR (South Carolina): $5,000,000 to amass 446 acres.
These acquisitions should not simply any land: tasks preserve habitat that has been strategically-selected to profit migratory birds, sometimes alongside the key North American flyways. Furthermore, as soon as the land is protected, it’s habitat that’s completely saved for the advantage of birds and different wildlife.
With out a lot fanfare, Duck Stamps and different federal applications receive land for conservation 12 months after 12 months.
Elements of this put up had been tailored from an earlier post.
